Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital denied cash, funds splashed on MCAs instead

The Kisumu county government failed to remit Sh266 million to Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital, an audit report shows.

The money that was released by the national government and factored into the hospital's 2013-2014 budget was used by the county executive without any explanation.

Kisumu Governor Jack Ranguma. His government failed to remit Sh266 million to Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital, an audit report shows.

(PHOTO: COURTESY)

The report prepared by Auditor General Edward Ouko shows the executive only released Sh129,566,429 out of Sh395 million.

"The management stated that this amount would be factored in the next budget. It was therefore not clear why it was mis-allocated and used by the executive on unexplained transactions," Mr Ouko said.

Ouko recommended that the Sh42 million allocated to the 35 area MCAs be recovered from them.

The money in question was given to the MCAs by the assembly, whereby each of them received Sh150,000 monthly cash float to cater for rent, salaries and office maintenance for their ward offices.

Ouko said the transactions are said to have taken place between November 2013 and June 2014, adding that the cash float was credited to their personal accounts. "The assembly did not provide any supporting documents to account for the cash float paid and it was not clear how the funds were spent by the assembly members," he said.

On car loan and mortgage facility to the MCAs, the auditor recommended that the vehicles be registered jointly in the name of the county assembly and individual MCAs.

This was after an internal probe showed the MCAs received Sh250,000 for car loan and mortgage facilities.

Each MCA is said to have pocketed Sh5 million from the assembly without filling application forms and no recourse was made available to the assembly in case a member defaulted in repaying the money.

"Review of pay-slips and other related records indicates that members' loan recovery put some of them in pecuniary embarrassment as the recoveries were below a third of their basic pay contrary to Section 19 (3) of the Employment Act 2007," he said.

On foreign travel, Ouko recommended that Sh31 million be recovered from MCAs for overpaid night-out alowances and failing to prove that they actually travelled overseas.

"In the absence of proper documentation and explanation, the Government may have Sh31,321,712 in unjustified expenditure," he said.

Education tour

MCAs spent Sh50.5 million on travel and accommodation to Israel, Uganda, China, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Austria. The report shows 49 MCAs and two assembly staff officers spent Sh6.5 million on an education tour to Uganda for six days.

They were overpaid for one night out and only seven MCAs and staff presented copies of their passports to the auditors.